Blogs I Peek at Frequently

Culture

April 19, 2010

I finally got around to re-reading Maralyn French's The Women's Room. I read it in 1977 when it first came out. I was a seventeen-year-old girl at the time. While I remember it as an interesting book, I really had no context in my life to truly understand what the novel really meant. I have to say that the part of the book when the main character Mira laments that, as a woman, 'you spend a certain amount of time scraping sh*t out of diapers with a kitchen knife and spend your energy trying to find green beans 3 cents cheaper a pound' did come to me as a flashback when I was at that stage in my life. Anyhoo... I think this book has stood the test of time. Many of French's ideas continue to have validity. It was a nice change for me to read a book that required some level of analytical thought. I've let myself get into a rut wherein I read fairly unchallenging books.

September 04, 2009

Pride and Prejudice anime style. I'm sure this is exactly what Jane Austin had in mind.

Today I picked up a knitting magazine I had never purchased before. It is the Winter issue of Debbie Bliss by Vogue Knitting. There are at least two projects I'd like to make which is two more than usual. I'm really in the mood to make something bigger than a pair of mittens. And I am on a quest to be a well-dressed person.

September 14, 2008

Last night was the 17th annual Stoogefest at the Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda. This year they opened up the balcony. The Riviera is a refurbished picture palace from the heyday of movie theaters.

From our perch in the balcony, along with 500-plus fellow Stooge fans we enjoyed eight shorts from the early 1930's. The highlight of the evening was a choral rendition of Stooge sounds - Nyuk and Woopwoopwoop being the most popular.

A few years ago I told my friend Suanne about one of my New Year's resolutions. I told her that I resolved to attend one cultural event per month. Well, she really ran with the idea. We now refer to the concept as "Cheap Cultcha". The Buffalo area has loads of free or practically free events for all tastes. Fairly often we get together for an interesting outing to get our fix of cheap cultcha.

The program we attended last Thursday was a WNED-TV (our local PBS station) presentation entitled Uncrowned Queens. The audience was treated to a preview of a recently-completed radio series created by Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram and Dr. Barbara Seals Nevergold who are affiliated with the University of Buffalo. The series chronicles the stories of African American women in Buffalo. The women were described as the anonymous, hard-working, faithful ladies who were the matriarchs of families and unsung heroes of the community. The story we heard that night was a tear-jerker. The creators are hoping the series goes national.